A high-flying daredevil, the father of extreme sports, the personification of excitement and danger and showmanship, motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel represented a unique slice of American culture in the 1970s. His jump over the fountains at Caesar's Palace led to a crash unlike anything ever seen on television, and his attempt to rocket over Snake River Canyon in Idaho was something even P.T. Barnum could not have trumped. In high-flying language as flashy as his subject's red, white, and blue jumpsuits, Leigh Montville delves into Knievel's place in pop culture as well as his notoriously complex and often contradictory relationships with his image, the media, his own family, and his many demons.

"[The author] writes in a florid high style, as if pulling a wheelie across every page. This can be smart, rowdy fun. Mr. Montville tacks the young Knievel to the wall, wonderfully.... He catches the way the wingspans of Knievel's jacket collars were the 'same as a good-size pterodactyl.'... Evel is never dull."—NYTimes